Watson, James S. (James Sibley), 1894-1982

In 1919, Scofield Thayer (1890?-1982) and James Sibley Watson, Jr. (1894-1982) bought The Dial, an incarnation of the magazine founded by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller in 1840.

An advocate of modernist writers, The Dial proved to be one of the most influential journals of the 20th century. Between 1920 and 1929, it published work by writers such as Gertrude Stein, Paul Valéry, Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust. Its famous November 1922 issue featured T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land;" William Butler Yeats' "The Player Queen;" drawings by Pablo Picasso; "Many Marriages" by Sherwood Anderson; and a "Paris Letter" by Ezra Pound. Scofield Thayer served as editor until 1925 when he left the magazine for health reasons. At that time, Marianne Moore (1887-1972), the 1924 recipient of The Dial Award, took over editorial control with J. S. Watson as publisher. Kenneth Burke (1897-1993) served as an editorial assistant at The Dial, and then as Music Critic from 1927-29.The magazine discontinued publication in 1929 due to financial reasons.

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